The present invention relates generally to devices for gathering printed products such as perfect binders and to methods for gathering printed products.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,724 describes a signature collating apparatus such as an inserter having a plurality of hoppers delivering sheet materials to newspapers in pockets. Repair sheet material article feeders can be provided. U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,724 is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,446 discloses a method and apparatus for making books, brochures and similar products with a perfect binding and is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,678 discloses a device for separating a lowermost flat product from a stack of flat products and is hereby incorporated by reference herein. The device may also include a separator element insertable in a space defined between the lowermost flat product and the next adjacent flat product.
Gathering devices such as perfect binders, saddle stitchers and mailroom inserters may use hoppers to collect sheet material. A saddle stitcher or perfect binder may for example collect folded printed materials from hoppers onto a saddle or perfect binder conveyor, respectively, to form a magazine or other printed product.
In addition, saddle stitchers and perfect binders may collect printed materials for selective bookbinding. Selective bookbinding occurs when magazines or other printed products contain information unique or personalized to each magazine or printed product. Often, the products are collected and formed in a specific sequence to minimize distribution costs, for example, carrier route sequencing used by the United States Postal Service. Thus, gathering devices may work more efficiently when the printed products receive the corresponding personalized information and the printed products maintain sequencing.
Different versions of gathered printed products, for example, different saddle stitched products or collections of inserts, can be produced on the fly for example by having twice the number of hoppers required for the versions. In other words, sixty hoppers spaced equally along a conveyor line can provide for two products each with thirty separate sheet materials to be produced on the fly.
Hoppers also sometimes misfeed during transfer, often via a transfer drum, to the transfer device, for example by not providing a printed material or providing a double. If a double is provided, the collected product on the conveyor can be discarded. If a hopper fails to feed a printed material, repair may be provided, for example, by actuating a duplicate repair hopper further down the conveyor line to provide the missing printed material. In some cases, for example with pocket conveyors, the pockets can be recycled past the hopper that misfed to provide the missing material. As an alternative to the automatic repair systems, the conveyor may be stopped and the product repaired by hand.